There are many options of furnace filters available. The big box stores have entire aisles dedicated to furnace filters which vary in price from 96 cents to in excess of $50! Which one is best for your situation and home? Are all filters basically the same thing? Let the Indoor Air Quality Specialists at Midwest Comfort Heating & Cooling put their experience to work for you and help you determine exactly which filter is your best option.
As Aprilaire Indoor Air Quality Specialists, the technicians at Midwest Comfort Heating & Cooling have the experience and training to determine which furnace filter is the best option for you and your home.
Not all furnace filters are created equal. The key distinguishing feature is the filters MERV rating. The MERV rating measures the degree at which a particular filter captures dust, debris, pollutants and allergens. The higher the MERV rating, the finer the particulate that the filter will capture.
The 1" wide fiberglass filters that you find at most retail stores that sells for a $1 or less generally have a MERV rating of between 2 and 4. These are good for catching only the largest pieces of debris, pet hair and dust. It is recommended that these types of filters be replace at a minimum of once a month and many times should be replaced more often depending on the individual needs of the home. These types of filters catch almost none of the allergens and pollutants that can be present in the home.
Does this mean everyone should go out and buy the highest MERV rated filter they can find? Not at all! The higher the MERV rating, the more restrictive it is to the air flowing through it and to the furnace. A furnace blower motor is designed to circulate a certain volume of air through the duct work system. The size of the duct work system determines the volume of air that is needed to heat and cool the home efficiently. When a filter that is too restrictive is installed, it can lower the volume of air flow and if the volume is lower than what the blower motor and duct work requires, it can put stress on the blower motor and make it work harder to move the amount of air that it requires. This can be the equivalent of a person trying to run a marathon while breathing through a drinking straw. They might be able to still breathe through the drinking straw but they aren’t getting the volume of air they need to run a marathon.
The Indoor Air Quality Specialists at Midwest Comfort Heating & Cooling can evaluate your heating system and your homes needs to correctly determine the appropriate filter for your situation. Give Midwest Comfort a call today to find the best filter system for your home!
Breathe Easy Again…
If you are currently using a standard 1" Air Filter, upgrade now to a High Efficiency Whole-House Media Air Cleaner. They are up to 40 times more efficient than traditional 1" filters, permanantly trapping airborne particles such as dust, pollen, dander, mold, spores, and other contaminants.
High Efficiency Air Cleaners work with all gas and electric forced-air furnaces, heat pumps, and air conditioning systems. Standard duct work modifications may be needed to install a high efficiency air cleaner on your current furnace system.
Media Air Cleaners also maintain high airflow in your heating and cooling system so it functions at full efficiency. And the Filter media only needs to be replaced once or twice per year, depending on the amount of blower operation. Simply remove the old media and insert new media.
Only The Best Name Brands…
Electronic Air Cleaners offer an advanced, easy-to-use, whole-house solution, trapping and filtering up to 99% of pollutants from the air passing through your heating and cooling system. They work by placing an electric charge on airborne particles, and then collecting the charged pollutants like a magnet.
Electronic Air Cleaners work with all gas, oil, and electric forced-air furnaces, heat pumps, and air conditioning systems. Standard ductwork modifications included in price.
Electronic Air Cleaners trap dust, pollen, mold, bacteria, viruses, dander, mites, smoke, and more! And they don’t restrict airflow through your HVAC system the way some heavy-duty air filters can, thus providing better performance.
Includes a Limited 5-Year Warranty
The Aprilaire Model 2000 is 95% to 99% Efficient! HEPA-type filtering media permanently traps indoor allergens.
The Aprilaire Media Air Cleaner is a silent, low-maintenance, inexpensive air filtration system. It utilizes a simple, remarkably effective HEPA-type filtering media that actually improves its particulate-capturing capability the longer it is used. For particles larger than five microns, efficiency reaches 99%. Even the smallest particles, as small as one micron, can be filtered out at 95% effectiveness.
Includes a Limited 5-Year Warranty
The Aprilaire Model 5000 is over 99% efficient on pollen and spores and it’s 94% efficient at removing disease-causing bacteria as small as 0.35 microns. It even traps harmful viruses with an efficiency of 80%.
The special Air Cleaner media lasts up to one year and there’s no monthly cleaning! This make the Aprilaire 5000 the perfect choice for tough-to-get-to units, such as attics and crawl spaces!